Cleveland’s first ever Black-owned brewery coming to town

CLEVELAND — Chris Harris said the name Black Frog Brewery just stuck.

“Another name for Toledo is frog town,” Harris said. “Since I was born and raised in the Toledo area, I just kinda put the two together.”

The Toledo brewer started making beer in his garage in 2014, before opening a brewery just outside Toledo. Now he’s opening a new spot in northeast Ohio. He hopes to bring some new flavors to the city.

“I’m not gonna give ‘em away,” Harris said, “but I do have some ideas for some beers in the Cleveland area.”

It will be the first ever Black-owned brewery in Cleveland. Its location is in a building across from the Cleveland Foundation. Cleveland’s mayor, Justin Bibb, honored him with a proclamation declaring Oct. 10 as Black Brewers Day. 

“It’s kinda two-fold,” Harris said. “It’s awesome, and it’s kinda sad at the same time that it’s 2023, and it took that long for there to be a Black-owned brewery in the city of Cleveland.”

Justin Hemminger is the deputy director of the Ohio Craft Brewers Association. He said Black Frog is one of only three breweries in the state that identify as Black-owned, and essence.com reported that only about 1% of breweries in the nation are Black-owned. Hemminger said opening up a second location is a huge step.

“Making an expansion into a bigger market, that’s pretty much how breweries grow now is through taproom expansion,” Hemminger said. 

Harris said that although he is the first, he hopes he won’t be the only Black-owned brewer in Cleveland for long.

“I feel that if they see somebody that looks like them, they have that thing, that ‘ok if he can do it, I can do it,’” Harris said. 

Black Frog Brewery’s Cleveland location is expected to open up around the end of next year.

“I’m gonna be doing a lot of traveling on the turnpike,” Harris said. 

Harris said the new spot could create about a dozen jobs.